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Author Topic: 10 years in alamy, should I give up?  (Read 10842 times)

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« on: December 22, 2019, 09:44 »
0
Revenue flat, as sales climb in a steady pace.  The work involved to keyword and upload works out to be lower than north american minimum wage. 


« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2019, 09:45 »
0
sales attachment

« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2019, 10:00 »
+6
That's your call. We don't know what your X axis is, but if it's beefy, why quit? All of micro stock is going down the toilet, and I consider Alamy mostly MS.  My sales there swing wildly. I could make zero in one month and $800 the next.  Knowing that I just let my stuff ride for those good months, but set my expectations to zero.  You've got to decide what you want out of Alamy and if that income does not fit your value proposition then dump them.  But anyone in MS today is scratching and clawing for every penny they can get before they can't get anymore.  I have left many MS agencies over the years for revenue purposes because they did not fit my minimum needs, which I'll admit today have dropped significantly over the years.  I just sold a cover photo for a travel magazine and made as much in that one sale as I do on SS in a month.  I'm doing more and more outside of MS because my value proposition is almost fully eroded, but I do hang on...it helps pay my estimated taxes:)
« Last Edit: December 22, 2019, 17:18 by Mantis »

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2019, 10:51 »
+5
Like Mantis says, why not keep your port up there for a while as a passive income, even if you don't feel the returns are worth submitting new content.

Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2019, 13:01 »
+4
On the up and up for me but i suppose it's easier to show year on year growth when i just started uploading in 2015.

« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2019, 12:11 »
+1
Yeah but that is a gross revenue graph which bears no reality to what you actually receive.

My gross chart is almost exactly the same as yours but net revenue is exactly the same as the last couple of years i.e. flat

Though the numbers sold have increased very nicely the money didn't

I started with them in 2011

Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2019, 12:48 »
0
Yeah but that is a gross revenue graph which bears no reality to what you actually receive.

My gross chart is almost exactly the same as yours but net revenue is exactly the same as the last couple of years i.e. flat

Though the numbers sold have increased very nicely the money didn't

I started with them in 2011

I've grown to accept that Alamy will probably never be like SS and that's fine. It's just a nice and unpredictable 2nd tier agency giving me 15% of my monthly net income on average. It's just all one big pie and on good months all the agencies contribute to the overall pie-yumminess.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2019, 11:16 »
+1
I don't do as well as some of the people answering, (income or downloads) but I'd agree that passive income is "free money" and what you do get, you've done the work. I'd also agree that the income per download has dropped. Not unexpected. Aside from lowering their prices, many people don't have exclusive, which means 40% instead of 50%. Myself I get a small number of distributor sales, which are even less, in real numbers.

Not the best overlay, I was using some old screen captures that aren't identical size. But it's fairly representative. Sales increased for me, to an all time high, while income doesn't match the first year. Times have changed. I get on average, lifetime, $50 a download. But there's no average on Alamy. One might be $12 and the next $212. That's the spike for 2019 a $124 and then a $125 gross sale at 50%. Two others are $3.63 for just over a dollar, as they were distributor sales.

Good and not so good, but considering the numbers, those low sales are still more than I get on average from anyplace else. Like someone else said, one Alamy sale can equal a month of Adobe. SS wins on volume.

I must add an important detail. I do not have the same images, anywhere. Alamy has many exclusive, SS has many that no place else will accept/Editorial and Adobe has many that SS will not accept. Comparing different images, subjects and types of images.


Income is Red, sales blue

Just not the same as anyplace else, I don't really have a fair way to compare. RPD on SS is flat, with downloads dropping. RPD on Adobe is going up, and so are downloads. That's the three that matter to me.


« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2020, 06:01 »
0
I haven't uploaded much for over a year and my earnings were slightly up last year.  I'll get beck to uploading this year.  I give them a lot of exclusive editorial images.

« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2020, 08:30 »
0
As some others were saying, it's hard to know given we don't have the X axis.

In any case, keep in mind that the main issue with Alamy comes from the comparatively low volume of sales. It's therefore hard to predict anything, as you would need a much bigger sample to make any reliable analysis. This explains as well why the sales volume may seem inconsistent on a 6 months or even a year analysis. I have made on Alamy in five years more money than the top 4 turds together, and yet, the sales volume in 5 years is inferior to the monthly volume of these 4 turds.

« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2020, 10:38 »
+2
I still upload to Alamy even though it can be slow. I find the uploading process easy and then if I have some free time I tweak the keywording etc. The only thing I do immediately is tag the images as editorial if necessary. I've found Alamy's customer service pretty cool. They reached out to me not long ago about a customer that wanted to use an editorial image for a wall piece. I was able to lift the editorial status so the customer could download it, and I made a nice chunk of change. So, they're quite nice there and I'll stick with them since they pay well for the images that do get sold, even if they only sell occasionally!  :)

« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2020, 14:07 »
0
I have a strange decline in views since beginning of december.......
I usually had about 800 views per month and it suddenly dropped to something like 300...
Over the last 4 days there were only 15 views of my pictures.....

Has anybody else noticed something like that as well?

I mean I dont really sell much stuff on Alamy anyway but if nobody even views my pics I might opt out as well......

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2020, 14:58 »
0
I have a strange decline in views since beginning of december.......
I usually had about 800 views per month and it suddenly dropped to something like 300...
Over the last 4 days there were only 15 views of my pictures.....

Has anybody else noticed something like that as well?

I mean I dont really sell much stuff on Alamy anyway but if nobody even views my pics I might opt out as well......

No, my views are stable, and for some reason my CTR is relatively high (for me). (I see it was high last Jan too, doesn't necesarily mean anything, though: I have no sales this year so far, which is my slowest-starting year since 2012).

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2020, 09:56 »
0
I have a strange decline in views since beginning of december.......
I usually had about 800 views per month and it suddenly dropped to something like 300...
Over the last 4 days there were only 15 views of my pictures.....

Has anybody else noticed something like that as well?

I mean I dont really sell much stuff on Alamy anyway but if nobody even views my pics I might opt out as well......

No, my views are stable, and for some reason my CTR is relatively high (for me). (I see it was high last Jan too, doesn't necesarily mean anything, though: I have no sales this year so far, which is my slowest-starting year since 2012).

This is terribly not related but I wanted you to see the post, since you do searches for... searches, views, All of Alamy and that kind of thing. I never knew how much we could sort and control the results.

https://www.regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html

| (that's the pipe symbol) can be used as OR in a search, % seems to be what we'd normally use as a wildcard like * in other searches. I bookmarked this and maybe some day I'll learn more. But mostly should be useful for Alamy searches?


« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2020, 11:33 »
+1
I quit doing microstock years ago and closed all my accounts - except Alamy, I left about 300 old images there, many are just 6mp.   And surprisingly I still get a sale once in a while.  I'm even thinking about uploading a few new ones for no real reason. 

But Alamy's tedious keywording hoo-ha was one reason I gave up.  I never even understood it.  And I'm done jumping through hoops for the chance to make $5 on some day in the far future.

Has anything changed there in the last few years?
« Last Edit: February 26, 2020, 11:36 by stockastic »

« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2020, 16:57 »
0
What shall I say- Alamy is performing great since they were sold..... Had a 188 $ sale today, a 36 $ sale last week, views went up and CTR is 1,03 for me now....
Amazing.
Such a change.
There must be a whole new bunch of clients after the sale. Buyers who like my kind of photos.....

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2020, 17:57 »
+1
What shall I say- Alamy is performing great since they were sold..... Had a 188 $ sale today, a 36 $ sale last week, views went up and CTR is 1,03 for me now....
Amazing.
Such a change.
There must be a whole new bunch of clients after the sale. Buyers who like my kind of photos.....
And the buyers who apparently liked my kind of photos last year have gone! (Last year my sales, though not $$, were up on previous years, this year  :'()
Feb, three sales, worst for years; and the nets were: $9.57, $6.27, $2.51

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2020, 18:01 »
+2
I have a strange decline in views since beginning of december.......
I usually had about 800 views per month and it suddenly dropped to something like 300...
Over the last 4 days there were only 15 views of my pictures.....

Has anybody else noticed something like that as well?

I mean I dont really sell much stuff on Alamy anyway but if nobody even views my pics I might opt out as well......

No, my views are stable, and for some reason my CTR is relatively high (for me). (I see it was high last Jan too, doesn't necesarily mean anything, though: I have no sales this year so far, which is my slowest-starting year since 2012).

This is terribly not related but I wanted you to see the post, since you do searches for... searches, views, All of Alamy and that kind of thing. I never knew how much we could sort and control the results.

https://www.regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html

| (that's the pipe symbol) can be used as OR in a search, % seems to be what we'd normally use as a wildcard like * in other searches. I bookmarked this and maybe some day I'll learn more. But mostly should be useful for Alamy searches?

Yes, you can search e.g. % New York, because although searching New York would give you New York theatres, New York shops, New York parks etc, it wouldn't show e.g. Manhattan, New York or Central Park, New York, so if you're looking for searches on New York, you have to do both.

« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2020, 09:05 »
0
Even if I no longer expect great sales from a site, I'll still keep selling there so long as they don't do anything dumb with my images. 

Sad, but that's my baseline.  If you seem honest, and protect my copyrights, I'll sell with you.  I quit a couple of agencies with good sales because of image leaks and bad business practices.


Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #19 on: February 27, 2020, 09:29 »
0
I have a strange decline in views since beginning of december.......
I usually had about 800 views per month and it suddenly dropped to something like 300...
Over the last 4 days there were only 15 views of my pictures.....

Has anybody else noticed something like that as well?

I mean I dont really sell much stuff on Alamy anyway but if nobody even views my pics I might opt out as well......

No, my views are stable, and for some reason my CTR is relatively high (for me). (I see it was high last Jan too, doesn't necesarily mean anything, though: I have no sales this year so far, which is my slowest-starting year since 2012).

This is terribly not related but I wanted you to see the post, since you do searches for... searches, views, All of Alamy and that kind of thing. I never knew how much we could sort and control the results.

https://www.regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html

| (that's the pipe symbol) can be used as OR in a search, % seems to be what we'd normally use as a wildcard like * in other searches. I bookmarked this and maybe some day I'll learn more. But mostly should be useful for Alamy searches?

Yes, you can search e.g. % New York, because although searching New York would give you New York theatres, New York shops, New York parks etc, it wouldn't show e.g. Manhattan, New York or Central Park, New York, so if you're looking for searches on New York, you have to do both.

Yes and reading the details with the either or search, specific words and all the potential, pretty good. The problem is, most buyers and users will never learn or use all these available tools. But I know you are interested in the search and how agencies have vague search qualifications.

What shall I say- Alamy is performing great since they were sold..... Had a 188 $ sale today, a 36 $ sale last week, views went up and CTR is 1,03 for me now....
Amazing.
Such a change.
There must be a whole new bunch of clients after the sale. Buyers who like my kind of photos.....

Maybe you are watching too close? One message you say your views are down and you are thinking of leaving, the next you are seeing them as preforming great, since they were sold. From the usual reporting times and buyers, considering the sale just went through, do you really believe your sales upswing is because of new owners, when nothing has changed?

Alamy is slow to change, slow to report, slow to pay, and for all of us, sales are not consistent. You had low views and you want to leave? You get some sales and everything has changed? I think what you might consider is, the flux and variations in sales, also regions and returns, at Alamy. I know I get a $120 sale, or two, and then the next month 3 $3.63 or $11 (those numbers are gross) downloads. Followed by nothing for two months. Alamy is highly irregular.

When buyers need images, they will buy them. When they don't need what I make, they don't buy them. I don't actually watch CTR and views, which maybe would be good for finding what buyers are looking for. I do what I do, upload what I like and that's been the same since 2008. If you are like some others and follow the trends, then that's good. If you create new based on trends and views, that's good too. Good as a tool for making new images.

But watching my own views and CTR, just to watch, has never helped sales in any way. It's more like, watching the pot boil, when you could just turn on the heat and go away for 10 minutes, then see if it's boiling or not? Watching or not, doesn't change what's actually happening?  ;D

Here's to more sales like this month and maybe some of that success will spill over to mine?

« Reply #20 on: February 27, 2020, 12:24 »
+1
I quit doing microstock years ago and closed all my accounts - except Alamy, I left about 300 old images there, many are just 6mp.   And surprisingly I still get a sale once in a while.  I'm even thinking about uploading a few new ones for no real reason. 

Why did you close your accounts instead of getting passive income?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #21 on: February 27, 2020, 14:18 »
0

| (that's the pipe symbol) can be used as OR in a search, % seems to be what we'd normally use as a wildcard like * in other searches. I bookmarked this and maybe some day I'll learn more. But mostly should be useful for Alamy searches?

Yes, you can search e.g. % New York, because although searching New York would give you New York theatres, New York shops, New York parks etc, it wouldn't show e.g. Manhattan, New York or Central Park, New York, so if you're looking for searches on New York, you have to do both.
Yes and reading the details with the either or search, specific words and all the potential, pretty good. The problem is, most buyers and users will never learn or use all these available tools. But I know you are interested in the search and how agencies have vague search qualifications.
I'm only talking about using these when actually looking at Alamy Measures. When I'm checking which pics to delete first, I'm looking at subjects with no searches in the past year. It would be rather silly if I checked spingleplonk without also searching % spingleplonk, because then I'd be missing colour spingleplonk, size spingleplonk, material spingleplonk and all manner of others.

I wasn't at all thinking of whether customers use them to search.

NB, we had an Alamy staff member at a social meetup last year, and she astonished us by saying that if a search shows in Measures with quotes, like "Joe Bloggs", that's because a staff member has searched. I have no idea whether that meant absolutely no searchers use quotes, or that public searches using quotes have them dropped in measures. It wouldn't say much for Alamy's buyers if it were the former, because putting quotation marks round a two or more word search really helps to clean up that Alamy 'feature' which matches any word in the caption or keywords with any other word in the caption or keywords, which can lead to really poor results depending on the algorithms in use.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #22 on: February 28, 2020, 09:23 »
0

| (that's the pipe symbol) can be used as OR in a search, % seems to be what we'd normally use as a wildcard like * in other searches. I bookmarked this and maybe some day I'll learn more. But mostly should be useful for Alamy searches?

Yes, you can search e.g. % New York, because although searching New York would give you New York theatres, New York shops, New York parks etc, it wouldn't show e.g. Manhattan, New York or Central Park, New York, so if you're looking for searches on New York, you have to do both.
Yes and reading the details with the either or search, specific words and all the potential, pretty good. The problem is, most buyers and users will never learn or use all these available tools. But I know you are interested in the search and how agencies have vague search qualifications.
I'm only talking about using these when actually looking at Alamy Measures. When I'm checking which pics to delete first, I'm looking at subjects with no searches in the past year. It would be rather silly if I checked spingleplonk without also searching % spingleplonk, because then I'd be missing colour spingleplonk, size spingleplonk, material spingleplonk and all manner of others.

I wasn't at all thinking of whether customers use them to search.

NB, we had an Alamy staff member at a social meetup last year, and she astonished us by saying that if a search shows in Measures with quotes, like "Joe Bloggs", that's because a staff member has searched. I have no idea whether that meant absolutely no searchers use quotes, or that public searches using quotes have them dropped in measures. It wouldn't say much for Alamy's buyers if it were the former, because putting quotation marks round a two or more word search really helps to clean up that Alamy 'feature' which matches any word in the caption or keywords with any other word in the caption or keywords, which can lead to really poor results depending on the algorithms in use.

The reason Google is the giant they are, coming from nowhere in 1998-1999, when there were all kinds of other search engines, some very popular, was because Google search worked best. That's how they crushed the competition.

If a stock site, had better searches, to find their images, more accurately, they would shoot to the top, just like Google did. As it is, most of the top sites are about the same and then the smaller ones and self hosted are much worse. Controlled vocabulary was an interesting concept, but poorly implemented, and looks abandoned?


 

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